Amazon (yes, that Amazon) is launching a movie studio, and they just gave our horror screenplay Faeries a “consider”. What’s that mean? Not a lot, as near as we can tell.

First, here’s a brief primer on the history of the Amazon Studios deal. (I’m confident in my understanding of this history, but if I’m wrong about any of the details, point me at a source, and I’ll make a correction.)

We’ve received a third round of notes from another Bluecat Screenplay Competition judge. We received our first feedback from Bluecat (see it here) a few weeks ago, and took the opportunity to make some adjustments based on those notes, and resubmit (Bluecat is great about that… your first submission gets notes from two readers, and writers can resubmit their screenplays for a third opinion after making modifications if they choose).

“…awesome, intense, unusual and original … sickly satisfying … [keeps] the audience at the edge of their seats … the only way to do horror movies”

The BlueCat competition is a terrific contest, and the dual coverage makes it well worth the submission price. They’ve got a great philosophy of dedication to improving the writer’s craft, and I consider them to be one of the top 5 competitions worth submitting to. This note from founder Gordy Hoffman says it all:

What can you take from feedback from two people? Will it actually provoke more questions than answers? Perhaps. It’s profoundly revealing to me the very serious principle of subjectivity, the idea that everyone is simply a person providing a reaction. Take what you can, look again in a week, and take some more. Keep pressing yourself to learn how to listen to your audience. It’s the most overlooked skill of the screenwriter, and highly invaluable. – Gordy Hoffman

“…the horror builds … an unusual creature … well written … above average … there is much to like here.”

Faeries gets some lovin’ from the SlamDance judges panel.

Faeries, possibly the best unproduced horror screenplay about pack hunting, echo locating, semi-sentient proto-humanoids currently making the rounds of Hollywood, just got some good feedback from one of the country’s most respected screenplay competitions.

“…the use of the faeries is an unusual creature, the characters are above average and the author strives to give them some depth and individuality … the story moves at a nice pace. The build is very strong. The author doesn’t try to rush things and make everything happen immediately or too fast, but lets the horror build. The early scenes especially have an unease about them (as one character points out, there’s something wrong or off about it all). All in all, there is much to like here.”

We appreciate that, SlamDance. And you’re in good company… both Shriekfest and WildSound have had praise for Faeries as well.

“A lively, unusual slasher movie that delivers plenty of gore, and introduces a new set of monsters that could be worth a franchise”
– Shriekfest Screenplay Competition

“Compelling, terrifying, disturbing, beautifully written.”

We’ve recently submitted the as-yet-unproduced Faeries horror screenplay to a few competitions, and just got the first set of coverage notes back. We think we did pretty well, and it only makes us more confident about the script.

Let’s get the news out of the way right off the bat:Faeries did not bring home an award in the screenplay competition. But the good news is, the grapevine tells us that we were a very close runner up, and an unofficial judge ‘s favorite for commercial appeal and shootability. Moreover, we walked away with two producers interested in reading the script, and one well-respected studio reader itching to rep it to a few prodcos. So we’re still chuggin’ along.

Faeries has now advanced to the finals, baby! Looks like we’ll be heading down to Hollywood again next month, to attend the fest. We will, of course, keep you all posted on the final results, about the trip, and about the fest itself.